Page 106 of Wild Ever After
He pulls back and stares down at me in confusion. He takes a seat back in the same spot he’d been sitting when I walked in, and I move into the living room and sit on the vintage chair I bought. He had it cleaned at some point and it no longer smells like cigarettes and dust.
“I mean when our contract is up. I like you. I like you so much, but people break up. It’s just a fact. You can’t predict what might happen between us.”
“Then let’s renegotiate.”
“What?” I feel my brows pull together in the middle.
“You want assurances. I can’t give you that, so I had my lawyer draw up a contract.” He stands and moves toward the kitchen.
Confused, I go after him. He hands me an envelope and then gets a beer from the fridge.
My heart rate speeds up, and my stomach does about a million somersaults as I read it. It says I can do the show, but in exchange, he wants to dissolve the prenup and stay married.
Stay married??!!
“Declan—” I start, and my voice breaks.
“There’s one more thing.” He stares at the ground. “I want to have a kid with you.”
The world tilts.
“I love you. I’m sorry I yelled it at you earlier, but it’s true. I want you to be my wife for real and I want to have a baby with you. I want us to be a family.”
In a million years, I never saw this coming. My voice barely works as I say, “We’ve never even talked about kids.”
“We’re talking about it now.” He leans a hip against the counter. “Do you want kids?”
“Sure, but…” I trail off. Not like this. Not as part of some agreement like we’re bartering one kid in exchange for me doing the show.
“I can’t sign this.” I set the papers down and take a deep breath. “I won’t do the show. You have been great to me and I respect that you don’t want to be a part of it.”
He runs a hand through his thick hair. He looks more confused than before. “I can’t figure out what it is you want.”
I swallow. “I want to get divorced.”
So much hurt crosses his face that I can hardly take it. “As long as we’re married, things are complicated,” I explain.
“What about your job?”
“I will deal with Melody and the fallout.”
“What about us?”
“After the dust settles then maybe we can figure out where that leaves us.”
“So we’re breaking up? This is just over?”
“No, not over.”
He invades my space, and those brown eyes search my face. “Forget everything. The job, this marriage, everything I said tonight. Do you want to be with me?”
“Of course, I do.”
“But you want to get divorced?”
“I don’t want us to be together because we’re legally obligated.”
“Fuck, Jade, I didn’t think we were.”
